Time was that banking was a relatively simple profession. You took on board the client's wealth, invested prudently - primarily in lending out the money again at higher rates of interest than paid to the saver - and netted the difference after costs as profit.

Even at the top, with personal bankers' fawning attention and individualised advice on portfolios, the basic rules were unchanged.

Not any more. This week, it emerged that US banker Merrill Lynch was, among other things, hiring psychiatrists to help the children of suddenly wealthy clients acclimatise to their new status. It appears that, in the world of the one-stock millionaire, social work has become one of the functions of bankers to the elite.